Dell today announced new OptiPlex thin clients designed for organizations such as education, financial, healthcare, and retail that have implemented or plan to implement a desktop virtualization infrastructure. For those that fall into the latter, Dell also unveiled additions to its desktop virtualization solutions portfolio, including an enhanced new Virtual Lab 2.0 solution aimed primarily at colleges and universities.

An undisclosed settlement amount will be paid to lawsuit plaintiff Advanced Internet Technologies which Dell hopes will finally put an end to the media firestorm surrounding the Optiplex brand of business desktops. Dell’s only comment was to say that “Settling the matter is better and more cost effective for the company than taking the case to trial”.

Since the case will never be fully heard out in court and the settlement details are being kept private we may never actually know the truth, however, I’m sure the monetary damages from this debacle are going to be far less punitive than the long term impact on the brand. Has this impacted your perception of Dell?

Dell has been embroiled in a legal battle with web host Advanced Internet technologies for the past three years, with the latter accusing the PC maker of deliberately shipping faulty OptiPlex desktops. AIT claims to have lost business worth several million dollars as a result of the 2,000 defective OptiPlex PCs it bought from Dell. Although Dell denies any wrongdoing on its part, court documents that were recently made public for the first time in three years show that employees were aware of the defects but chose to keep them from clients.

Did Dell knowingly sell broken OptiPlex PCs and try to cover up problems with bad capacitors, as some have charged? Not so fast, says Dell, who responded to the widespread media attention in a blog post.

"Some of you may have been reading about faulty capacitors in some of our older OptiPlex desktops," Dell's Lionel Menchaca wrote. "Before I get into more details, I want to make some points clear.:

This is an issue we addressed with customers some years ago. The Advanced Internet Technologies lawsuit is three years old and does not involve any current Dell products.

Dell did not knowingly ship faulty motherboards, and we worked directly with customers in situations where the issue occurred.

Dell extended the warranty for up to five years for customers who had affected machines.

This is not a safety issue.

"Dell suspended use of Nichicon capacitors after we discovered a problem in its manufacturing process. As we routinely do with product issues, we actively investigated this failures, audited the Nichicon plants and worked with customers to fix OptiPlex computers on a case-by-case basis."

Menchaca also pointed out that Dell voluntarily extended warranties on all potentially affected OptiPlex motherboards up to January 2008.

Bigger isn't always better, at least not when you're trying to save space. Such is the theme for Dell's updated commercial line of small form factor (SFF) OptiPlex desktops the company announced today.

"The death of the commercial desktop has been greatly overstated," said Mike Basore, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Dell Business Client Product Group. "We are seeing customers look to deploy small form factor systems in ways never before imagined. These new desktop systems provide a rock solid foundation which Dell is known for while providing long-lifecycle and secure capabilities in key areas such as client virtualization and systems management."

Not only are the new OptiPlex PCs small, but Dell says its new OptiPlex 780 USFF is the smallest fully functional commercial desktop PC with an integrated PSU and Intel vPro technology. The versatile system comes built around Intel's Core 2 Duo technology and offers up support for Windows 7, Vista, and XP, as well as Ubuntu "in select countries." Other features include advanced systems management options, full disk encryption, and up to a 90 percent efficient power supply, which Dell boasts is better than HP's Compaq dc7900 Ultra-slim and Lenovo's ThinkCentre M58p Ultra SFF business class machine.

Dell also announced the OptiPlex 380, which is being aimed at customers in emerging countries and businesses looking for a budget-friendly solution with room to grow. It too supports the same OSes as the 780 USFF, and comes with an "easy to service chassis" with DirectDetect LED diagnostic lights.

Both new models are available now direct through Dell starting at $629 (OptiPlex 780 USFF) and $349 (OptiPlex 380 SFF).

Dell this week has launched a new line of OptiPlex desktop rigs, starting with the company's new flagship OptiPlex 960. The 960 comes wrapped in three different chassis designs -- mini-tower, desktop, and SFF -- with a configurable interior that lets consumers choose from both Intel's Core 2 Duo and quad-processor lineup, onboard or add-in graphics, and up to 8GB of DDR2 RAM. The new OptiPlex also looks to go green with what Dell claims is a 43 percent reduction in power consumption compared to previous OptiPlex models. Other improvements include a sturdier frame, significant noise reduction (up to 60 percent), and beefed up security through full drive encryption.

Among the OptiFlex refresh also sits Dell's FX160. The FX160 is Dell's first ever thin client, and can be configured to support either a Virtual Remote Desktop thin client environment or an On-Demand Desktop Streaming environment. Underneath the hood is an Intel Atom processor.

The new OptiPlex rigs are available now with starting prices ranging from $399 (FX160) on up to $863 (960).